that is the mobo in question. friend turns on computer, it runs (fans/hdd/mobo light is on) but nothing displays. have tried removing a set of ram and using the other (there are 2). Have removed the gpu and tried just the mobo vga port, didnt work either. the old power supply did not turn on the mobo light so friend purchased that newer psu, is it possible the new psu is not compatible? not even sure which part is not working, but willing to buy new mobo to just try it out.

soooooooo, what would be a good motherboard to purchase from newegg? there is also a soundcard installed. just one hdd, and the cd drive along w/ the gfx card.

Probably a poor choice, since that board doesn't even support his CPU. At all.

Unfortunately, you're in a bit of a bind. You have a fairly high end CPU for that socket type, and that socket type has long been out of manufacture. Not only that, but most boards that support the S775 factor don't support that chip. You need specifically a G41/43 chipset. Selections are limited.

Did he tried to reset motherboard's bios? And also disconnect everything from it, like hdds, usb devices etc.
Any pc-speaker sounds from mb? Like 1-beep normal booting or any kind of another?
Try a new videocard.

The motherboard itself is not bad. I would not choose a motherboard with integrated video if I was going to use the real videocard with it though.
Asrock is generally a bad choice.

Did he tried to reset motherboard's bios? And also disconnect everything from it, like hdds, usb devices etc.
Any pc-speaker sounds from mb? Like 1-beep normal booting or any kind of another?
Try a new videocard.

The motherboard itself is not bad. I would not choose a motherboard with integrated video if I was going to use the real videocard with it though.
Asrock is generally a bad choice.

I would agree that ASRock is generally a bad choice. However, their newer boards has been quite decent in both performance and quality so if he is going to replace his CPU I would have no problems recommending ASRock for that. For old 775 socket, I am inclined to agree with you. It's a bad choice and a huge waste of money. Your CPU is due for replacement man, it's been 7 years, your MB is most likely dead. This is when you upgrade to new tech, you don't replace the old parts with old tech.

Say what your budget is and I'm sure you will get help finding a build that suits you.

I know people keep saying Asrock is a bad choice. But I should point out that with a system that age and specification... There literally aren't any other choices on Newegg besides that, and an Intel board (Which is also a perfectly good choice, I guess). So say Asrock isn't a great choice, but it's either that, Intel, or a potato.

While a new system may be in order, if the old system was working fine until just now, $50 seems worth it to fix it. If your 1980 car breaks down and needs $300 to fix completely, do you fix it, or do you go buy a completely different $6000 car?

Can you explain the situation a bit more? Is this a system you just got. Was it running before? Did it just randomly stop? Was something changed?

the system randomly just stopped working. nothing changed at all, the computer some years old. it was custom built awhile ago. the system has 2 beeps, not long ones. couldnt find out what the bios was so i didnt know what the code meant. friend is cheap and doesnt really want to buy a lot of stuff he prefers to just buy 1 or 2 parts and call it a day.

The Q8400 wasn't a high end yorkfield 45nm processor by any means. It was more of a budget quad core with low cache. The Q9XXX line was the high end for Quads. For dual cores, the E8XXX was the high end. If you're buying a new MB, you're going to be pretty limited in selection, as most vendors only have G41 chipset boards available these days if any.

2 short beeps on AMI Bios usually indicates failed DRAM parity check. For Award it's usually a CMOS error. I would start by pulling the CMOS battery for a good 30s, and then replacing it. You can also reset the BIOS using the CMOS jumper as well. Remove the ram, and try booting the system with only 1 stick installed. Make sure the contacts are clean and the sockets are clear of anything that might interfere with making a clean connection.

Inspect the board for ruptured capacitors, especially near the DRAM area. Ruptured caps will look like this:

2 short beeps on AMI Bios usually indicates failed DRAM parity check. For Award it's usually a CMOS error. I would start by pulling the CMOS battery for a good 30s, and then replacing it. You can also reset the BIOS using the CMOS jumper as well. Remove the ram, and try booting the system with only 1 stick installed. Make sure the contacts are clean and the sockets are clear of anything that might interfere with making a clean connection.

Inspect the board for ruptured capacitors, especially near the DRAM area. Ruptured caps will look like this:

tried removing cmos+tried taking out a stick of ram at a time, didnt help. will look at the mobo for any signs of anything.

I mean, just trying to save as much money as possible as per the car comparison. Would be down to buy multiple parts as long as cost is cheap around $50-$200